Net income rose to $2.25 billion, or $1.28 a share, from
$1.85 billion, or $1.01, a year earlier, Burbank, California-based Disney said today in a statement. That beat the $1.16-a-share average of 28 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Disney, the world’s largest entertainment company, had two
big films for the quarter that ended June 30, with Marvel’s
“Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Maleficent,”
according to Box Office Mojo. “Guardians of the Galaxy,” also
from Marvel, opened last weekend with $94.3 million in domestic
cinemas, the best ever for an August release.

“People said it came out of nowhere because those
characters were not well known,” Iger said of the latest film.
“The title was not well known, but the Marvel brand has become
something that, at least in the consumer’s eyes, really means
something and should be trusted.”

‘Frozen’ DVDs

Operating income at the film studio more than doubled to
$411 million, the biggest gain among the company’s five
divisions. “Frozen,” the hit 2013 movie, continued to deliver
profit in home entertainment and international cinemas.

The acquisitions of Marvel in 2009 and Lucasfilm in 2012
has brought to Disney new material to attract teenage boys to
its films, as well as characters for its toys, TV networks and
theme parks. The film studio is well positioned for at least the
next five years, Iger said.

The results were strong across most of Disney’s businesses,
according to Kannan Venkateshwar, an analyst with Barclays Plc.

“While the media networks business was roughly in line
with our estimates, the company’s parks, studio, consumer
products and even interactive businesses showed strength,”
Venkateshwar wrote in a research note.

Disney gets the bulk of its profit from its TV division.
Operating income at the unit, which includes ESPN, ABC and the
Disney Channel, was little changed at $2.3 billion, as sports
programming costs increased. While ABC earnings increased,
profit at the much larger cable operation fell 7 percent because
of higher costs at ESPN, the sale of a U.K. unit at ESPN and the
shift in the timing of some revenue.

Theme Parks

Profit at Disney’s parks increased 23 percent to $848
million, with attendance and guest spending up at its domestic
resorts. The company raised daily admission prices at its Magic
Kingdom park in Orlando, Florida, twice in the past year, to $99
from $89 and benefited from the later Easter holiday, which
pulled business into the quarter. Disney also is in the second
year of a rollout of electronic wristbands that make purchases
easier in the parks.

The interactive unit, which makes video games, reported a
profit of $29 million, compared with a year-ago loss, fueled by
sales of the company’s Infinity gaming system.

Disney was little changed in extended trading. Before the
results, the shares fell 0.6 percent to $86.75 at the close in
New York. They have risen 14 percent to this year.